Victoria Moore: resilient Lebanese winemakers take on the world

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Faouzi Issa is describing picking grapes to the sound of distant shelling, and bombs exploding. “The noise reverberates on the mountains. Boom-BOOM. Boom-BOOM. There was one time in 2016 it became like the music of the day.”

This is how winemakers from Lebanon talk. They also grin and say things like, “You have to be Schumacher to drive in the Bekaa Valley.” (After a drive in Lebanon seven years ago, cowering in the back, eyes closed, as cars speeding at 90mph overtook with a margin of millimetres, I can testify to the truth in this.) And, “My mother makes the best kibbe [beef croquettes] – when there are kibbe in the house, we are all dancing, fighting for them.” Mrs Issa’s kibbe, for the record,...